Where Does RFK Jr.’s Environmental Policies Stand?

Harava Rahardjo ’25 

Ellen Chen ‘25 

During President Trump’s time in office, more than 100 environmental policies and regulations were rolled back (Popovich, Nadja, et al., 2020). Robert F. Kennedy Jr. served as a senior attorney for an environmental group called the Natural Resources Defense Council for 28 years and emphasized the importance of water, soil, and food quality in the United States during his run for presidency in 2024. Now that Kennedy has dropped out of the presidential race, he has endorsed Trump. It seems out of character, but, on a closer look, unsurprising. 

Kennedy’s work in support of environmental causes began in the 1980s when he first joined the Natural Resources Defense Council. After that, he continued his work in environmental law with the Riverkeeper organization, assisting in bringing charges against polluters in the Hudson River Valley (Andreoni, 2024). He was also a member of the Waterkeeper Alliance, an organization focused on combating poor water quality around the world, helping the organization close landfills that contaminate water supplies and defeat attempts at constructing dams. 

However, later in his career, new political stances Kennedy started to express distanced himself from the environmental groups he was once a core part of. Kennedy became an advocate for anti-vaccine groups, spreading conspiracy theories that linked vaccines to autism and allegedly spreading misinformation while sowing fear, especially during the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines (Smith, 2024). On the other hand, he still showed signs that we would remain firm in his environmental stances. In 2017, he condemned the Trump administration’s policies for fossil fuel production and later denounced the Biden administration’s attempts at funding carbon capture projects, claiming that it would benefit fossil fuel industries. During his political campaigning, however, Kennedy largely focused on the environmental issues of food production, soil regeneration, and clean water rather than climate change, an issue that many conservatives don’t believe exists at all. 

Now that he has endorsed Trump, Kennedy has also claimed that he will continue to fight for his environmental policies as part of the Trump administration. Though he and Trump have agreed that they have “very serious differences,” Kennedy nevertheless insists that he will be able to “transform our nation’s food, fitness, air, water, soil and medicine” through the influence he will have in the event of a second term for Trump (Smith, 2024). The question remains, however, if that will really happen.

References

Andreoni, Manuela. “How R.F.K. Jr.. Went from Environmental Champion to Trump Backer.” The New York Times, The New York

Times, 27 Aug. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/08/27/climate/rfk-jr-trump-climate-change.html.

Malone, Clare. “What Does Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Actually Want?” The New Yorker, 5 Aug. 2024, 

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/08/12/robert-f-kennedy-jr-profile-presidential-campa ign. 

Smith, Michelle R., and Josh Funk. “RFK Jr. Suggests If Trump Is Elected, He’ll Play Significant Role in Agriculture and Health

Policy.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 15 Oct. 2024, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/rfk-jr-suggests-if-trump-is-elected-hell-play-significant-rol e-in-agriculture-and-health-policy. 

Popovich, Nadja, et al. “The Trump Administration Rolled Back More than 100 Environmental Rules. Here’s the Full List.” The New

York Times, The New York Times, 16 Oct. 2020,  www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html.